Thank you for your interest in continuing with us on our big adventure.
Last years journal was getting pretty long so we decided to start a separate one for this year. Last year we hit the road in late April, so this is about one year later.
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We will be mostly in Colorado and New Mexico this year, so the map should not have to be changed as it had to be last year. If you did not change the map you can still go back to that...

This is our fourth visit to Rover's Roost hanging out here until the Covid 19 virus restrictions begin to ease up which is scheduled to be for us, till May 3, 2020 with Sue's brother Ken & his dog Huck. We are in our RV and he in his in the site next to us.
On May 3, we will leave and drive to Sho Low, AZ for one night rest, then onto Mesa Verde, CO for night 2, night 3 will be in South Fork, CO and finally we will end up in Nathrop, CO to begin our summer stay, working PT at Chalk Creek Campground & RV Park. The park will not officially...

For the third time we returned to Casa Grande, AZ to stay awhile at Rover's Roost Escapees (SKP) CoOp RV Park. This time we were filling 7 days time again between our Verde Valley excursion and upcoming reservations we had at Picacho Peak State Park. Actually, the state park is only 34 miles away from Rover's Roost so this was the most logical place to use.
This time we got a site opposite the driveway from Sue's brother, Ken. On the weekend at the Casa Grande Community Airport an annual "fly-in" of privately owned antique, military, and...

This is our second visit to Rover's Roost Escapees CoOp RV Park. We were her December 21, 2019 through January 2, 2020. There is a previous entry for that visit in this journal.
This time we came here to fill some down time that we had in our schedule between our stay at Catalina State Park and the upcoming Escapees LoWs group campout in the Valle Verde area of Arizona.
This is a pretty laid back park located about 9 miles due west of Casa Grande, AZ out in a farming area. They have some activities in the clubhouse but are pretty lame,...

The holidays are approaching so we headed to Casa Grande, AZ to meet up with Ken Winder, Sue's brother, who leases an RV site in the Rovers Roost RV Park. He is a full time RVer also who sold his house in Fairbanks Alaska a year before we sold our house in Albuquerque. He owns a 2007 Fleetwood Southwind Motorhome and we own a 2007 Fleetwood Southwind Motorhome. He tows a 2007 Jeep Liberty and we tow a 2007 Jeep Liberty. It really was planned or coordinated that way. It just sort of happened.
Anyway the RV park is affiliated with the...

Our first morning in the Mountain Time Zone and guess who was awake a little before 5:00 a.m.? So, I finally get up around 5:20 and tried to be quiet. Even though I was quiet Sue was awake around 5:45 a.m. We had forgotten to set back the clocks before we went to bed and she thought it was time to get ready to travel. Once we determined the real time we still got ready to go...just not as fast.
We were out and on I-10 before 8:30. It was cool and overcast and a couple of times before we left New Mexico we had to turn on the wipers. As I...

We got a late start and decided that the Saguaro National Monument can wait until we are on our way home. We’ll probably get an RV site in Tucson, which is closer, for a night or 2.
We looked at a few model homes just for fun. All had nice features but smallish for $400k – small garages, small yards, and no RV parking.
There was no yard for a dog but all had an inside doggie wash stall next to a doggie door. We found this strange because, as any dog owner knows, the last thing you want is to wet down your dog and let it into the house....

Today, we went to the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. Admission is free. It is worth seeing if you are within 100 miles or so. It’s not worth the drive from Los Angeles on its own, but a must see if you’re here or passing through.
The monument protects a 4-story adobe building that’s around 700 years old. The walls of the main structure align with the 4 cardinal compass points: pretty amazing for 700 years ago. Strategically placed holes in the walls served as an observatory to predict the seasons. Again, pretty clever 700 years ago....

Didn't do much today. Got up at 9 and checked out by 11.
Bought fuel in Gila Bend - was hoping to find 100% petro diesel but could find only 5-20% blended. I'm not sure what the higher percentages will do to my old fuel system: I guess we'll find out.
Drove the 66 miles to Casa Grande. We didn't bother to hitch up the Jeep for the short drive. That was nice.
Late in the day we drove up to Superior. It's an old mining town in the mountains north of here. We saw the cliff where, supposedly, a bunch of Indians jumped rather than being taken...

We stayed in Picacho at a KOA. We had stayed there before. They have a restaurant that was really good. Well, we got a call that the restaurant had closed. But we stayed anyways. Not too far away is Casa Grande. We visited with more friends who we worked with in Yellowstone, and also some other friends who are going to babysit our freezer for a couple of weeks. We cannot take a freezer full of meat into Mexico so it is going to stay in Casa Grande for a while. We will pick it up again in a few weeks.

Tue, 09 Oct: Final leg...
Today's 73 mile drive might be the final segment of 2018. We're not yet sure if we'll put on new front tires this year or wait until spring. Our inclination is to wait till spring, but who knows???
Our service at the Tolleson Freightliner dealer went well. Nothing of any consequence was found so our total included "routine" expenses, such as $175 for an air filter (plus two hours labor to install), 28 quarts of synthetic engine oil, etc., etc., etc.
We awoke early this morning due mostly to the din of a major truck...

My co-worker and friend Jim Grannon and I had a saying each night when we left work at the Star-Ledger – nothing is prettier than Newark in the rear-view mirror. Today, nothing was prettier than California in the rear-view mirror as we left the not so Golden State and re-entered Arizona.
But before we could do that we had about 160 miles to cover between San Diego and Yuma. We started with more mountains. We had to climb to just over 4,000 feet to clear the mountains that surround the San Diego area. It was a slow go but the motor home had...